Women activists urged to join political parties

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although Indonesian women now have a greater chance to participate in the decision-making process with the endorsement of the election bill, the opportunity will be meaningless if women activists do not join political parties, a former minister for women's empowerment said.

"It is unrealistic to discuss a quota when women have no interest in joining political parties," Khofifah Indar Parawansa told a discussion held in conjunction with the commemoration of International Women's Day here on Saturday.

The discussion titled "The Challenges of Indonesian Women in Politics and the Public Domain" was attended by hundreds of women activists.

Khofifah, a politician from the National Awakening Party (PKB), was commenting on an article in the election law that suggests that political parties make up to 30 percent of their legislative candidates women.

Her statement served as criticism against women activists who campaign for equal opportunity between men and women in decision- making processes but refuse to join political parties.

She emphasized that the inclusion of the 30 percent quota should inspire women to improve themselves and prepare for political struggle.

Should women activists join political parties, Khofifah said, there would be more reasons for party executives to increase the number of women legislative candidates.

Francisia Seda of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), who also spoke at the discussion, acknowledged that the article was not mandatory, therefore offered no penalties.

According to Francisia, it was the responsibility of political parties to lure women to join the parties, not the duty of women activists to join the political parties.

Meanwhile, Chusnul Mar'iyah, a member of the General Elections Commission (KPU), asked women to join the regional branches of the KPU or the election monitoring committee.

Chusnul also appealed to women to run for Regional Representatives Council posts. There will be four council seats up for grabs in each province.

Both Khofifah and Francisia agreed that there were obstacles, both from inside and outside the family, for Indonesian women wishing joining political parties.

Referring to history, Khofifah said that women representation in the legislature had been a long struggle.

It began at the first national congress of women in 1928, which improved the awareness of women about participating in development and politics.

Women representation in the legislature since then has had its ups and downs.

As a result of the first election in 1955, the number of women legislators was 17 of the total 272, or 6.3 percent. That number rose continuously and reached its peak in 1987, with 65 of the total 500 legislators being women, or 13 percent.

Khofifah said the 1987 figure did not reflect actual women representation, saying that then president Soeharto had practiced nepotism in appointing women legislators.

Composition of women in political positions (as of Jan. 13, 2002) --------------------------------------------------------------- Position Number of Women Number of Men Percentage --------------------------------------------------------------- MPR 18 117 9.2 DPR 45 455 9 MA 7 40 14.8 BPK 0 7 0 DPA 2 43 4.4 KPU 2 9 18.1 Governors 0 30 0 Regents 5 331 1.5 --------------------------------------------------------------- Source: The Jakarta Post

MPR: People's Consultative Assembly DPR: House of representatives MA: Supreme Court BPK: Supreme Audit Agency DPA: Supreme Advisory Council (now defunct) KPU: General Elections Commission